NFLUG Business: STEERING COMMITTEE DISCUSSION

[Dennis J. Eberl]

I really believe we need a term limited (say, 6 months) Steering Committee. My
suggestion is we have seven voting and one non-voting member. One possible
configuration would be the list below. You will, of course, have you own idea,
which might be better. Have to start somewhere.

1) Newbie Representative (totally innocent of all computer knowledge if
possible)

2) Newbie Representative (old hand at computers but totally innocent of Unix if
possible)

3) Community Representative (e.g., Dave Raczyk, Computers for Children, or
somebody active in Ham Radio networking)

4) Community Representative (e.g., SOHO* user/provider like Brian Chapin, John
McMahon,  John Miller, or Robert Meyer)

5) Program Developer/Coordinator (e.g., John Neff and his Linux Study Group)

6) Technical (Oldbie )Representative (e.g., Linux Guru, any of many; don't all
step forward at once : )

7) Court Jester & Tie Breaker (guess who : >)

8) Non-voting Representative from previous Steering Committee (for continuity).

I hesitated to put in any names, but you get the idea. Anyone named who doesn't
have time
to serve please contact me at dje at pcom.net. Please discuss this idea on the
list. My flame pot
is out. Your safe.

We could nominate people, vote, and get it over with in about 20 minutes at the
next meeting.

. I think a term limit of 6 months is a good idea: it gives people time to get
the
feel of things and accomplish something but avoids development of a clique that
thinks they own the LUG. Continuity is provided by #8, which ought to be filled
even though there is no previous Steering Committee. We are after all a
confluence of BLUG97, BLUG99, and NFLUG.

It might not be a good idea to dump everyone at 6 months. Perhaps at 6 months,
the committee
could draw straws, the loser's position being up for nomination and replacement
at the next
meeting. We could continue in this manner until everyone is replaced. I'm not
sure how we
elect a new Non-voting member: we could just take the first 8 former members,
allowing any
who care to to drop out, and elect one. A condition for being elected to the
committee must,
therefore, be a willingness to serve a second term as the Non-Voting
"Continuity" Rep?

On last thought. We also need an "official" contact person with something like
info at nflug.org
as an address and someone to maintain and develop our web site. These two people
should be
elected, should coordinate their activities with and act under instructions from
the Steering
Committee, but not function as part of the committee. For example, someone could
be both our
Contact Person and be on the Steering Committee at the same time. I would keep
the contact
person and web person(s) off the committee simply to keep it from growing too
large.

Please think about this and discuss it on the list. We can't continue merely as
a social group,
but we shouldn't over govern ourselves either. Let's keep it fun.

Respectfully,

Dennis Eberl,
Blinky, too

~%>(X)|      <-- Blinky, His Mark.


* SOHO == Small Office/Home Office type of business